Shoe lasting machines

ABSTRACT

AN IMPROVED SHOE FOREPART LASTING MACHINE IN WHICH REGISTRATION OF AN INSOLE AND AN UPPER WITH A LAST IS PROVIDED BY A MECHANISM FOR MOVING THE LAST HEELWARDLY INTO THE LASTED HEEL END OF THE SHOE.

Sept. 20, 1971 BQWLER ETAL 3,605,150

SHOE LASTING MACHINES Filed June 8, 1970 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 N Invenfors Raymond M Bowler Leo FSzczrztorz By their Aftorney Sept. 20, 1971 R. MQBOWLER arm. 3,605,150

SHOE uswme mcnmns Filed June 8, 1970 4. Sheets-Sheet 2 Sept. 20, 1971 Filed June 8. 1970 R. M. "BowLsR ETAL 3,605,150

sacs ms'mo ucnmn's 4 Sheets-Shoot 3 United States Patent 3,605,150 SHOE LASTING MACHINES Raymond M. Bowler, Salem, N.H., and Leo F. Stanton, Newburyport, Mass., assignors t0 USM Corporation, Boston, Mass.

Filed June 8, 1970, Ser. No. 44,226 Int. Cl. A43d 75/00 US. Cl. 12--10.8 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An improved shoe forepart lasting machine in which registration of an insole and an upper with a last is provided by a mechanism for moving the last heelwardly into the lasted heel end of the shoe.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART It has been common practice as an initial manual step in the manufacture of shoes to place an insole in registration with the bottom of a last and temporarily tack it in place. A further manual step required assembling a shoe upper on the last and temporarily tacking it in place. Since subsequent lasting operations depended on accurate initial assembly of the upper and insole on the last, reliance had to be placed on operator skill and judgment in two separate manual operations. The result was additional expense in the shoe manufacturing process.

Shoemaking techniques using the method disclosed in copending application Ser. No. 2,720, filed J an. 14, 1970, in the name of Pelletier and Becker, eliminate such manual insole and upper placement and attachment with resulting savings in labor. The method disclosed in the above application includes placing a shoe upper over a last, and tensioning the shoe upper toewardly of the last. This closely conforms the heel portion of the upper to the heel portion of the last, with the margin of the upper forming a pocket extending beyond the sole portion of the last bottom. The heel end of an insole is then placed in this pocket and, upon additional registration of the toe portion, the insole is brought into full registration with the sole portion of the last. The shoe upper is then lasted about the heel end of the last and secured to the insole. To this point the upper and insole are accurately assembled and oriented on the last and a final step involving lasting the forepart of the shoe may then be carried out.

Before lasting the forepart of the upper, care must be taken to insure the continued proper registration of the insole and'upper with the last as such registration may have been disturbed when the shoe is transferred to a forepart lasting machine. Such care partially frustrates the saving in manual labor obtained by avoiding manual insole placement and temporary attachment to the last. Prior attempts to insure such continued proper registration of the insole with the last are disclosed in US. Letters Pat. 3,452,377, granted July 1, 1969 in the name of T. MacDonald. The machine disclosed therein uses a support member contacting the insole and movable toewardly of a last which is held against movement by a gauge member. The contact between the support member and the insole is such as to draw the insole toewardly of the last and into lengthwise registration with the last. This does not insure accurate registration of both the insole and upper with the last since force applied only to the insole is insufficient to obtain the full advantage inherent in the method of the above application. It is necessary to the above method, before the forepart lasting step, that the last be forced heelwardly into the already lasted heel portion of the upper to reestablish the correct registration of both insole and upper with the last.

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SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for carrying out a portion of the above method in which accurate registration of the insole and upper with the last is ensured before the shoe forepart lasting operation.

It is a further object of the invention to provide an apparatus for registering the insole with the toe end of the last which assists in the final tensioning of the upper on the last.

To this end a forepart lasting machine typically of the type disclosed in US. Letters Pat. No. 3,164,852, granted J an. 12, 1965 in the name of R. M. Bowler et al., is provided with a heel support and a forepart support member which position the shoe while the lasting means shape the forepart of the upper about the last. The machine is also provided with a distributor member which engages the last around the toe end both to spread the upper as it is lasted and to locate the last. The distributor member is mounted for movement lengthwise of the last toward the heel end of the shoe. Heelward movement of the distributor pushes the last into the previously lasted heel end of the upper. This action forces the heel end of the last into close conformity with the already shaped heel end of the upper re-establishing the original registration of the insole and upper with the last.

The above and other objects and features, together with novel details of construction, will now be described with particular reference to the embodiment shown in the drawings and thereafter pointed out in the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a portion of an illustrative shoe forepart lasting machine including the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a'fragmentary side view of certain elements of the mechanism shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side view in enlarged scale of certain parts shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 with certain parts shown in different positions;

FIG. 5 is a top view of the toe engaging distributor shown in side elevation in FIG. 3; and

FIG. 6 is a section substantially on line VIVI of FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to the drawings a machine incorporating the present invention includes a support member 10 fixed against movement lengthwise of a shoe in the machine. The shoe, comprising an upper U and an insole I which have been lasted about the heel end of a last L but is unsecured at the toe end, is supported in the proper plane for a forepart lasting operation on the support member. The lasting means includes a gripper 12 which grips and tensions the toe portion of the upper. The toe portion of the last is initially located against a member 13 which may also act as a distributor during a wiping operation.

The distributor member is generally U-shaped as seen in FIG. 5 and is adapted to engage the curved toe portion of the last. A support rod 14 secures the distributor on a movable member 15 mounted for heightwise movement on the upper end of a piston rod 16 extending from a cylinder 17 to spread the upper during wiping in an action not important to the present invention.

Since the insole is not secured to the last bottom, it frequently happens that the insole is spaced heelwardly from the toe end of the last as shown by the dashed line position of the last in FIG. 2. To insure that the insole as well as the upper are properly registered with the last for optimum shoemaking conditions, the member 13 is adapted to be moved heelwardly to urge the last toward the heel end of the shoe and into proper endwise registration with the insole. This action also forces the heel end of the last firmly into the previously lasted heel end of the upper to further insure complete orientation of the upper and the insole with the last. To this end, the member 15 is mounted on a composite member 20 through pairs of links 18 and 19. Member 20 is pivoted at 39 on a fixed portion of the machine frame and at its opposite end has a slideway 36 which receives a slide 3 5. The slide is pivotally connected at 25 to one arm of a bell crank 21 which swings about a pivot 24 extending from the machine frame. The other arm of the bell crank is pivotally connected to a bracket 22 secured to a piston rod 23 of a cylinder 26. The bracket is provided with an adjustable stop screw 41 which abuts the upper end of the cylinder 26 upon retraction of the piston as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3. The composite member 20 is provided with a stop screw 42 which is adapted to abut a portion 43 of the machine frame when the mechanism is in another position as shown in FIG. 4. Abutment of the stop screw 41 with the cylinder determines the initial position of the member 13, while abutment of the screw 42 with the frame determines the final position.

Operation of the machine will now be described. The toe end of the last is placed by the operator against the member 13 with the stop screw 41 abutting the cylinder 26 as seen in FIG. 3. Admission of pressure fluid to the lower end of the cylinder moves the piston rod 23 and bracket 22 up to swing the bell crank 21 clockwise about pivot 24 until screw 42 engages the frame part 43 as seen in FIG. 4. This swings the composite member 20 clockwise about its pivots 39 and moves the member 13 heelwardly. The last is thus moved heelwardly from the initial dashed line position to the final solid line position as shown in FIG. 2 and snugly into engagement With the previously lasted heel end of the shoe. Adjustment of the stop screw 42 adjusts the extent of heelward movement of the member 13 and the last.

The distributor member movement takes place prior to the forepart lasting operation but after the toe portion of the upper has been gripped by gripper 12 so that movement of the last heelwardly while the gripper holds the upper aids in final tensioning of the upper. The support member upon which the insole rests is provided with teeth 34 to restrain heelward movement of the insole until the distributor engages the toe end of the insole whereupon the insole slips on the teeth. At this point in the machine cycle the upper and insole have been accurately reoriented on the last to the relationships previously established when the heel end of the shoe was lasted, without careful attention by the operator of the machine. Thereafter the forepart of the upper is wiped heightrwise about the forepart of the last and inwardly over the insole on the last bottom in a well known manner and typically as described in said Bowler patent. Thus, the upper and insole are accurately lasted on the last according to the method disclosed in said application without initial manual registration and temporary attachment of the upper and insole to the last.

It is understood that the apparatus as described could be considerably varied without departing from the scope of the invention as defined.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a machine for lasting the forepart of a shoe comprising an upper shaped at the heel end and secured at the heel end to an insole and assembled on a last, a support against which the forepart of the insole rests for locating the shoe heightwise, gripping means for holding the forepart of the upper, a member against which the toe end of the last is placed for initial location and means for moving the member heelwardly for forcing. the last heelwardly into the shaped heel end of the upper held by the gripping means thereby orienting the upper, insole and last.

2. A machine according to claim 1 in which the support is provided with teeth engaging the insole to resist heelward movement of the insole during heelward movement of the last.

3. A machine according to claim 1 in which adjustable means is provided for varying the extent of heelward movement of the last.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,604,645 7/1952 Butler et a1 12l0.8 2,980,931 4/1961 Gilbride l2---14.2

PATRICK D. LAWSON, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. l2-l4.2 

